


matter of trust

by Eya_Silvers



Series: just like good times, huh? [2]
Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Angst, Banter, Character Study, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Porn With Plot, Relationship Study, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-27
Updated: 2018-02-27
Packaged: 2019-03-19 15:52:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 16,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13707693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eya_Silvers/pseuds/Eya_Silvers
Summary: The biggest problem, the one she fears the most, ever since her right-hand turned the barrel of his gun against his commandant, is betrayal.And Chloe Frazer is not to be trusted.





	matter of trust

**Author's Note:**

> I have read very little (none at all) fanfictions written with Nadine's point of view of the events during UC4, Lost Legacy and beyond. This is my take on her character. It might not be yours, so I apologize in advance if you are a manly man reading this, it "might" get "feminist" and "sapphic".
> 
> Also I'm bi as fuck so Chloe's wondrous arse is the object of my praises in there.
> 
> PS: I'm not english. Fuck grammar. Bless dictionaries.

The first impression Nadine has of Frazer is that the woman's an unbelievable smartass with a vicious tongue; but foremost, she’s not to be trusted.

She orders a very bland beer during their first meet-up, sipping it like mountain water while she goes over the percentage of the Tusk they’re gonna have to share. Nadine is firstly put off by the way she carries herself. In her line of work, the physique of people is often more important than what they have in their head. If they aren’t fit enough to survive, then they won’t, as simple as that.

Frazer has arms. Her frame is more flexible than muscular and there is enough fat on her ass to smother a man, Nadine gives her that. It’s round and looking bouncy, and very hard to hide even under a dress. The jeans she wears that day leave nothing to Nadine’s imagination, leaving the mercenary with indignation pounding in her head by the end of their first rendezvous.

“You alright there, Nadine?”

Nadine’s already asked, sharp enough to tell her off, if it was possible for her to call her ma’am, or Ross if she somehow couldn't afford it. Frazer’s instantly denied, wittingly enough to tell her off, claiming that both propositions didn’t roll off the tongue as good as ‘Nadine’.

“I’m surprised, is all.” she replies, handing the waiter a tip. “I’m not sure I believe you when you say you’re a climber.”

To her surprise, Frazer laughs. She looks genuinely amused although Nadine never uttered any semblance of a joke.

“Those guns have secrets.” the thief then says with a wink.

“Ja, I’m sure they do.” Nadine replies, faking a quick smile. She crosses her arms under her chest, eager to get back to the professional talk. “I’ll watch out for Asav and text you as soon as I get his address. You, dig onto the mythology and whatnot around the Tusk.”

“I know my job, love, thank you.”

Nadine can’t help it but blink. Once, twice before she’s sure that Frazer has said exactly what she said, because she’s standing straight in front of her, innocent-eyed and smirky-brow on, because she _genuinely thinks that there’s nothing wrong with her behavior_.

Nothing _provoking_.

It’s like she deliberately plays with Nadine’s nerves to see to which extent she can drive her until it all snaps, in all ignorance of the risks of the game. Perhaps she does ignore the risks, but it only takes a fool to pass over the fact that Frazer is a smart woman. Nadine chose her because of her brains, foremost, and the knowledge she’s got, something she herself doesn’t naturally possesses neither does she care about. Nadine fights, and Nadine commands, and leads armies to victory. That’s what she does, because she’s fucking good at it.

(because she _was_ fucking good at it)

She chose Frazer because there’s no one else that’s willing to work with her, and it’s not like being a treasure hunter is a widespread profession. She’d blow their brains out rather than work with the Drakes, and their affiliate Cutter is another man she isn’t willing to put her trust in. She’s made that mistake before. And she’s learned from it.

Maybe it’s weird, and maybe it’ll turn out to be another mistake she’ll learn from, but she chose Frazer because she’s just like her. A woman - a woman of color, even - non-American, old enough to make Nadine know that she’s fit to survive, young enough to make her know that she’s fit to survive.

But the biggest problem, the one she fears the most, ever since her right-hand turned the barrel of his gun against his commandant, is betrayal.

And Chloe Frazer is not to be trusted.

 

She holds the guard’s head down until Frazer knees him in the nose, breaking the cartilage and his ego. Nadine’s next punch completes to knock him out. They work well, throwing around fists.

They work well throwing fits at each other too.

Usually it starts off like this:

Ross: you did something stupid and I'm mad at you for it.

Frazer: at least I did something.

Ross: you put us both at risk.

Frazer: risks is synonym to moving forward, _sweetie cream peanut_.

Ross: it is also synonym to danger, that rhymes with 'us' and 'murdered'.

Frazer: may I remind you that I'm in charge?

Ross: may I remind you that you would have ended up dead and thrown in the Yamuna without me?

It goes on until Nadine throws the towel and stops replying, because she's quickly learned that Frazer _needs_ to be the last one talking. It feels compulsory, like a control thing that Nadine isn't fond of at all.

“Relax” Frazer says, brushing a black strand of hair off her sweating brow, “you’ll live longer.” And off she goes, in her deliberate taunt and sway of the hips, like her head couldn't get any bigger than her ass. Frankly, Nadine doubts such a thing is possible given the size of each cheek.

She tears her eyes from this dumper, teeth gritted with resignation, and points to the main entrance of the Pink Lotus. Frazer grabs her binoculars and zooms onto the group of men.

“Handsome.”

“If you’re into psychopaths.” Nadine utters.

Frazer simply chuckles, keeps her binoculars and snaps a photo of the men for her blog or whatever it is that thieves do in their free time.

Nadine shivers with disgust when she thinks back to Asav and her adventure with him, even though she’d rather not call it that. She remembers thinking it was fun, like the roller coasters. Roller coasters have an high and a drop. A rather brutal drop. Now it is nothing more than another mistake she’s made and learned from, situated at the top of her list. And what a damn long list.

“Maybe over drinks?” Frazer asks, driving with no hesitation in the running current of the plains.

For a second Nadine frowns, considering the words chosen, wondering if they were said on purpose with a subtext intended. Knowing Frazer, there probably is a subtext. She decides to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“Not enough alcohol in the world.”

Frazer chuckles again. It’s her way to close a discussion when there’s nothing else to be said, because she always needs to be the last one talking. Nadine was right about that: it _is_ a control thing. How she’s managed to get partnered up with a person that is somehow more pig-headed than her, she has no idea.

But the road’s long. And it’s taking an awful time to find all those freaking tokens that are absolutely non-essential to the mission but that Frazer would definitely go bananas over if they didn’t pick them all up to get her pretty little trophy that they aren’t even sure _exists_. So Nadine suffers in silence, rises her voice sometimes to express her intense displeasure, and starts asking questions.

Personal questions.

She realizes now that she probably shouldn’t have broken her own rule, but the thing is, she’s bored as hell and getting genuinely curious; plus Frazer is starting to know a lot more about her than Nadine does and if there’s something Nadine dislikes, it’s losing ground.

“You and Nathan Drake… professional relationship?”

She’s tried very hard, giving every bit of her soul into not sounding like she’s talking gossip…… but it does sound like she’s eager to have a girls’ talk with Chloe Freaking Frazer. Especially since the answer is just as gossipy.

“Hum… _mostly_ professional.”

And then it just… breaks out of her throat. Laughter, high and clear, authentic and very, _very_ appalled in front of what her imagination hands her on a silver platter.

“Oh, god.” she does, covering her eyes almost shamefully. “God - how... how?”

Frazer gets mildly offended. It’s extremely satisfying to see some expression other than smugness settle on her face.

“Hey, you’re not one to talk about questionable choices, mate. Asav? And that other one, that trust fund brat?”

Nadine loses a bit of her grin but Frazer’s defensiveness isn’t enough to erase the very gross, awkward image of the two enamoured thieves.

“They weren’t a choice, they were means to an end.” she replies sharply before skipping to the most interesting part. “But Drake…?”

“He… wasn’t so bad.”

Nadine shakes her head, questioning her partner’s choice of men.

(because hers is so much better)

“I mean…” she continues, keeping in another laugh, “ugh, he just thinks he’s so clever!”

“Oh, he’s incredibly irritating, impossibly so, but he’s charming in his own way. It was fun… while it lasted.”

Nadine tries to see something charming in Drake, but fails impressively just like she has failed to see any other man as charming. But well, at least she’ll go out of this adventure without a man that she pretended even remotely to like.

“Frazer, I have to ask”, because once she’s holding a bone she’s not giving it up.” Did you two take turns talking, or did you just talk over each other?”

And Frazer just scoffs, driving into another current like she’s punishing Nadine with the power of childishness, but Nadine’s the child here, or at least, feeling like one - or maybe, and it’s dangerous, feeling like she’s with a friend.

It hasn’t happened in years, being with someone that she didn’t have to manipulate or fake her feelings for. Perhaps it’s because Frazer’s a woman that’s too smooth-talked her way into the world of men. At least Nadine knows there isn’t going to be any ambiguity, Frazer definitely looking as straight as a stripper’s pole.

Which is why she’s surprised when Frazer reiterates her question with the usual subtle subtext.

“Last one to the car buys dinner.”

And back to Nadine giving her the benefit of the doubt, but the longer they walk together, the more interrogations pop into her head.

“I brought MREs.” she says blankly, refusing to reply positively or negatively.

With an ass like that, Nadine thinks when they brace themselves to push the mechanism to let water flow, there’s no way on earth she’s something else than straight.

She fools herself a couple of seconds later by staring off at Frazer’s chest, looking away before she can be spotted.

 

A good narrator turns the worst tales into the most fascinating myths.

Frazer’s a smooth-talker - anyone that’s spent more than five minutes with her can easily come to this conclusion, but she’s also a literal _talker_. Nadine isn’t used to noisy and colorful people. She finds it a little irritating that Frazer always seems to possess this need to fill the silence in the car with more noise, even some that isn’t close to interesting. She talks, and talks, and invites Nadine to the conversation like Nadine doesn’t have her share of private information gone public.

She talks, and talks, and yet she doesn’t reveal anything about herself, and when Nadine asks, she cracks a joke and a beautiful tale instead.

She tells Nadine about Parashurama and his arch-enemy Kartavirya Arjuna. She tells her about the sacred axe called Parashu and the Lord Shiva, mentor of Parashurama. She tells all about Ganesha's Tusk, and the Hoysala and the two lost capitals, Belur and Halebidu, one historical, one crumbling under gold. She tells and tells, going over the tiniest details with such passionate fastidiousness that little by little, the tales root in Nadine’s head just as easily as the Wikipedia page of the different muntjac species.

“Hear me out…” Frazer pants, pacing around while superbly ignoring Nadine’s impatience. “Ganesh is the symbol of…”

“Halebidu.” she replies in a heartbeat.

“And Shiva was the symbol of…”

“Belur.” she says like she’s known all along and not like she’s learned by watching, and listening, and reading Chloe Frazer.

“Which was the old…”

“The old capital!”

And Frazer takes a step forward to Nadine, gaze locked on her gaze, a shimmer of ardor shining in the iron of her eye.

“What if the king built this spectacular city… and it was a wonderful target for the Persians…”

Nadine breathes out. “And the old capital was forgotten.” Frazer’s passion is contagious. It reflects in the dark of her pupils. “This whole city was a decoy!”

“What if they let it get plundered to protect Belur-”

“-and their treasure.” Nadine concludes.

Without being able to help it, a grin springs on her face, born from the fire of their find and their meninges mixed. Maybe it’s the adrenalin speaking, but for the first time in ages, Nadine feels like _herself_.

“I’m willing to bet that the Tusk was never here at all.”

“So where is Belur?”

They share a knowing smile, a lengthy stare into the other’s eyes to see themselves staring back at them. The same excitement, the same turn-on of the unknown. It’s a longing for more adventure, for more bleeding fingertips and bruised egos, for more stomach lurches when standing from the heights and heart hiccups when running away from the bullets.

A tremor below their feet. The world cowers and the floor falls, Nadine cries out for Frazer when she drops like a weight; she could have missed her hand and the grip could’ve slipped, so very easily, but she holds on to her, counting on the strength of her upper arms to bring Frazer back on safe ground.

Inhale, exhale.

There’s more exhales than all the times she’s bench-pressed. The wind’s knocked out of her when she misses Frazer’s friendly fist-bump and she falls back down, hands painfully clutching her ribs while her last energy decides to combust into laughter.

Nadine throws her head back, and _cracks up_.

Soon her eyes prickle tears that mix with the sweat and the water from the dam, and when she tries to focus on Frazer, she only sees the mirror of her laugh which is the one and only excuse she needs to fall back into her uncontrollable fit.

“Whew-” she pants, pulling on her wet and dirty shirt, and the second later she’s stolen by the view before her, green and gold and downright _immense_ , making her feel small and part of something bigger.

In the breathtaking view there’s that crimson spot that fashionedly decided to wear that particular nowhere-to-be-found-in-the-wild color. Nadine doesn’t want to take her eyes off it. Her eyes blaze up Frazer’s frame, along the outline of the bra clasps she can make out under the shirt, to the low ponytail, a mess of dishevelment, to the flirting jaw and the easy smile she can’t see but rests there on top of the plump lips, calmly.

And so Nadine decides to give out her trust.

“Sorry if I cut too close to the bone back there.” she apologizes, sincerity edged inside her gaze.

Frazer shakes her head. She turns to Nadine with one true rare smile on. “It’s alright.”

It changes from the handshake and the signed papers, Nadine thinks. This one deal might be careless, but it's one she can actually see herself growing used to.

She laughs again, a mix of joy and incredulity when Frazer soaks herself to the bone by diving into the repaired dam, like she isn't wet enough already. It's Frazer's turn to chuckle, her eye roll sending sparks of pride through Nadine's chest, when the mercenary knocks out two men in one second.

To each their skills, she guesses.

 

It just happened by itself.

She saw red, and when she sees red, she strikes. It’s her body response to anger and in that case, rage, turning her blind and deaf to explanations no matter how thought-out they are. Frazer tried explaining herself. Smooth-mouthed, poised poison foaming from those lips. Bloodied nose, bruise spreading on her jaw as she lays on the ground.

Her concussed head must hurt.

It better.

“Don’t hold back, or anything…”

“Oh, I did.”

She thinks about kicking her, in the ribs, in the chest, where it hurts, where she hurt. Nadine walks around her instead, looking down at her partner’s fallen form.

This is what happens when she gives out her trust.

This is what happens when she mixes up obligation and affection. When she lets her heart decide for her instead of instinct, the one that tells her to pack her bags and leave before she gets scarred once more. She’d been afraid, the first days after meeting Frazer, that her to-be partner would turn out to be exactly like all the other men Nadine came to know.

Now she’s here, standing above the woman who slowly looks up, this hurt in her eyes reflecting hers, and all she can see is Rafe’s face when he slapped her, Asav’s face when he forced her to go down, dad’s face in that coffin, pale as chalk, leaving her behind at seventeen and an army to lead.

Frazer’s face when Nadine leaves her behind in the start of the storm, eyes wide from the violence of her tempest.

“And to think I trusted you.”

She clenches the wheel and starts the engine, rushing off like a shot, forbidding herself to look at the rearview mirror. She takes a break by the Hoysala ruins when she realizes that she’s breathing too hard for it to be healthy.

It just happened by itself.

The truth comes out to her and Nadine punches the wheel, rams it down with her fist, once, with a cry of despair. Because the situation is even worse than she imagined.

She’s fallen in love.

Her head drops just as the bullet shrieks, piercing through the windshield in lieu of where her brow was a second ago. Many more come join their sister, lodging themselves into the hood and the gas tank. Nadine doesn’t bother with opening the door and throws herself out.

The explosion roasts her shirt. It boils her skin and lits a fire in her lungs when she opens her mouth to catch enough breath to scramble away. She rolls into the nearest bushes and stays there, two dark eyes looking in the rebels approaching the destroyed jeep and searching it for her body. She moves the instant they show her their back. A latecomer tries to get back to his team, she strangles him before he can alarm them, forearm crushing his throat and cutting the airflow, an hand digging into his mouth to silence his cries. She waits for him to minimize his struggling to snap his neck. Then, she hides the body, using the wild grass as a sepulchre.

The APC takes her by surprise. It appears in an outburst of metallic hatred, its cannon pointed at every suspicious movement of the wild. Nadine closes in to two wanderers behind some ruins, away from the truck’s radar. She jumps on one’s back, counting on choking him, but the noise he makes when she cuts his breath short betrays her - the second one tries to lend a hit but she sends her foot to him, landing the army boot in his temple. In an ample gesture, she propels five feet down the one she choked and hits the other one again, hoping he doesn't make more noise when his skull meets the side of the ruin.

Unexpectedly, her thoughts crawl to what Frazer would say on the battlefield. Possibly snarky commentaries, whispered critiques of the men's killing skills, certainly some whining on the state of her once blue jeans.

She can't allow herself to miss the traitor literally five minutes after leaving her in the Ghats. It's just plain stupid on her part. So why the _fuck_ does her heart ping with relief - and a bit of anger - when she spots the woman, on top of the tallest of ruins, rocket launcher facing the APC and glorious ass turned to her?

There’s an earth-wrecking explosion and now flames rise from the downed APC. Nadine turns away from the ashes of the truck and uses the instant of shock amongst Asav’s men to launch herself towards one, knee smacking against his junk. Another breath, and she's forced his hands to his rifle, risen the barrel to his chin, and pressed the trigger.

She almost downs Frazer when she hears the rustling next to her. The woman's head shoots up from the tall grass. It’d be a comical sight if Nadine wasn't so pissed.

“Nadine, you alr-”

“Traitor.” she almost spits, quieting herself down before they can be spotted. “Can't resist kicking the hornet's nest, can you, Frazer?” she whispers instead with every once of acid boiling in her veins.

Frazer half-asses what Nadine doesn't count as an apology, and turns away to blow some men's head.

Then she has the front to talk about them.

Like she didn't just break this trust, thin but there, building and feeling like new - a good kind of new like the discovery of a lost city - to Nadine, she who only ever knew betrayal and loyalty marked by a signature on a piece of paper. Loyalty can be bought, in her mind, and just as easily bought away.

All that lying because of a _man_.

Because of a _Drake_ **_._ **

The very same one that pointed a gun to her head and opened fire. She got the fate of her life back to her thanks to the younger one, quite ironically.

She despises them both.

She wishes she could gut them. She wishes she could ram her closed fist against their plexus, stealing their lungs, and ravage their face, see the blood spurt from their nose and shock widen their eyes when she crushes their fingers off the edge they’re trying and failing to cling on to. Oh, what a joy it would be to see them _die_ , not wither away from old age like they certainly would love to go, but leave them to die, stomach open and bleeding out, somewhere dark, somewhere aflame, all alone, like they left her on her own with no one to turn to but a stranger she thought she could trust.

“ _We_?” Nadine repeats, in a callback, in an irated outrage.

And Frazer has the balls to sigh with exasperation. Like _Nadine_ is the one fucking it all up with her attitude, and not the lies, and the secrets, and the men.

And the men.

 

Animals don't lie.

They’re born and they die, and in between they get the chance to experience life in its most simplest way: searching food, searching shelter, seeking love and escaping death. She often thinks it's the way her life was meant to be, far from the hypocrisy and the manipulations of man and its need to possess.

The elephant’s trapped.

Its large body is stuck under a pillar that must have collapsed due to the many explosions from Asav’s orders. Nadine hears its trumpet first, mix of pain and anguish, then her eye meets its eye. Instantaneously, revenge leaves her mind to leave it with scare. Meanwhile, Frazer runs for the elephant and rubs its skin with care.

Nadine sees it. She watches the woman stroke the animal, caringly soothe it, and it is perhaps the most open Nadine has ever seen her. Frazer doesn't have to ask twice for Nadine to help her push the pillar off the elephant’s back. She's there in a second, all rage erased, and they brace themselves side by side. For a moment it's like they're back together, as partners, as a team.

Her foot slips and her ass lands on its back and she holds on to Frazer for dear life when it takes the both of them for a ride. She's seen and touched elephants before, but those were Africans, not Indians. The shape and size of the ear is different, a bit cabbage-looking if you ask for Nadine's opinion, and the body is significantly smaller than the ones in South Africa’s preserves. If she recalls well, the one they're mounting should weigh approximately 4.000 kilograms.

Nadine slowly lets go of Frazer’s waist. She keeps her lips sealed shut from the amazed smile of their luck.

But she starts thinking.

The elephant takes its time to take them wherever it's taking them, leaving her with her thoughts and Frazer's back to face.

Frazer has betrayed her, there's no point in arguing with that statement. Omission of truth is a coward’s way of lying. Nadine doesn't have time to waste with cowards. But she knows Frazer isn't one.

She did lie by not telling her that Sam Drake's involved in all of this, even though she knew what business Nadine has with him. She did lie, because she doesn't know how people work. Frazer has the temperament of the one-man-in-every-port kind of girl, with the ideal body to go along. In this line of job, either you have a complementary relationship with your counterpart, either you work alone rather than setting useless trust on possible allies. She’s had to coax her way through where others preferred to train for it. But even though her evident physical weakness, she’s saved Nadine’s life on countless occasions despite it being a pain to admit, and she isn’t scared to face the barrel of a gun with a smile.

No, Chloe Frazer isn’t a coward.

“I am a selfish dickhead.”

Nadine has to take a moment to understand that those words have effectively left Frazer’s mouth. The thief has probably spent an eternity twisting them between her teeth, tasting them out before handing the thoughts out. Maybe it’s the first time she’s spoken the truth to Nadine, but it feels like a giant step forward.

“It's good to hear you say it.” Nadine replies with a chuckle, and all the tension leaves her at once, suddenly the warm body in front of her doesn’t exhale ‘punch me’ pheromones.

Frazer laughs in response, laugh turning into a choke when the elephant throws them off its back onto a pond.

Nadine’s relieved. The real apology and the forced bath draw her eyes back to Frazer’s ass.

It’s true she’s got a pretty one.

 

Nadine didn’t have a father to properly call one that. She recalls a man, strong-built and eyes sharp, mouth a bark. She recalls a coffin and a will, with very few words written by his hand: “to my only daughter I bequeath all my belongings, including the Shoreline military agency I built with my bare hands.”. No affection or tenderness and Nadine hadn’t expected the opposite.

So when Frazer mentions her dad once, twice, and then now, she thinks she's a very lucky woman. For having known what a dad is like, mainly. For having felt warmth and love, and having learnt stories - stories of dead civilizations living through memory, of crypts and myths gone real. Stories of magic.

“Why don’t you send your dad a pic? I’m sure he’d be delighted.”

“A bit too late for that,” Frazer said, voice an hesitation and gaze avoiding her gaze.

Nadine comes down to her knees in front of the crumbled woman. She’s holding her token in her closed hand, close to her chest, rubbed between two fingers, like a stress-ball; except it’s the very thing that has her come apart in pieces.

Her dirty hair is blinding her left eye. She softly blows on the strand to hide the tears. Nadine sees through the mask.

The two lips open and the grey eyes, open wide and filled with despair, turn to her partner. “I can’t let Asav get that Tusk.”

“No.” Nadine nods. She sees herself taking Frazer in her arms. She sees herself. She doesn’t know why she stays immobile. It's true that she's never been good with gestures, but she still holds the power of speech. “No, we can’t.”

Frazer’s shoulders drop. Another breath comes to blow at this rebel strand of hair. “Thank you.”

Nadine helps her up. She gives a squeeze the fleeting second her hand’s on her hand. Frazer seems to get it, and shows a little smile.

Oh, Nadine hopes she gets how much she cares for her. At the beginning of this shit, she had told herself that she didn’t need, nor want affection or affliction. Now, she knows she’d throw herself into the mouth of a tiger if it were to save Frazer from being eaten. Frazer she doesn’t trust with cajoling a rabid feline. Nadine knows she’d choke the animal bare handed for her.

 

Nadine’s worst fear comes true.

Chloe falls.

Nadine doesn’t miss a bit to throw herself to her, no matter how dark the waters are. And the ground under them crumbles too. Her fingers, inches away from grasping Chloe’s, slip. She feels herself lose her balance and goes limp, a ragdoll tumbling toward the deep end. Her back hits Chloe, unintentionally propelling her down with her.

Nadine pummels into the basin like a rock, head first. Then she doesn’t feel a thing.

She can’t say for how long she’s out.

When she regains consciousness, her lungs are on fire and she finds herself puking the water from it. Frazer’s arms are surrounding her ribcage, tight enough to hurt, tight enough to allow her head to break the surface and breathe in.

Head swimming in confusion, Nadine instantly kneads the water. She grips Frazer’s collar like an instinct and forces her up. Relief blasts in her chest when she hears the gasp and the explosion of breath ; they both latch onto each other like the other’s a pillar. They pant together, shaking their legs to stay afloat.

Inhale, exhale.

“Thank you.” Nadine does, painfully breathing in.

Frazer chortles. “Thank me when I find an hairdryer.”

Nadine’s gasps for air mix in with her chuckles. She turns to Frazer.

Her forehead is hurt pretty bad, a large bleeding gash running to her brow. Her ponytail’s almost loose now, the tie threatening to snap and let the black mass free. It’d be a rare, but enjoyable sight - ebony blending in the turquoise of the basin, punctuated by Frazer’s groans when she’d try to gather her hair up into some kind of a messy bun - and suddenly Nadine wishes they were out of the water onto solid ground, and dry, and safe, away from Asav and his men because it’d just be the two of them and a plate of food other than MREs, and chit-chat, and no lies but laughs.

Nadine’s arms are brutally wrenched behind her back. Around her wrists close cuffs, painfully digging into her already cracked skin. She struggles for a bit but her muscles are worn and there’s the barrel of a Condor shotgun pushing against her spine. She intends on keeping her life, and Frazer’s; she can't save her without the use of her legs.

There’s a man on the ground. Tall but wizened on himself, blood running down his face from a broken nose and ugly bruises around his eye sockets. He’s got the looks of an american tourist. Nadine’s shoved down the mosaic floor at Samuel Drake’s side.

His nose isn’t mutilated enough for her liking.

It could be funny, the way he slowly, panickingly turns to her hearing her hate-fuelled voice, but it fills her with more disgust. Her throat remembers the bruises of his choke and the gunshot narrowingly missing her temple echoes in her head when she thinks about death.

Too many times she’s diced with it. Every single one of her opponents had ended up in a casket ; except for Drake and his floral-printed stupid fucking shirt.

Nadine’s forced on her feet, thrusted forward. The cunt almost merrily comes to her side. And discusses _coffee_.

“Don’t talk to me.” she barks, replied by an awkward chuckle from him. She wonders if kneeing him in the nuts and maybe biting off what’s left of his nose is worth taking a bullet for. She comes to the conclusion that indeed it is, but Chloe’s behind her, and there’s no way Nadine’s leaving her on her own with Asav and what would be left of Drake.

“Of all the people you could’ve brought with you…” he complains. Nadine pretends being deaf.

“She saved my ass, you know.”

Nadine’s cheeks could color with pleasure.

“You do remember that she also tried to kill Nathan and I, many, many times?”

Nadine would try to kill their entire family and descendants in a heartbeat if she ever had the chance.

“And to be fair, you two tried to do the same to her.” Chloe snaps with no hesitation.

Nadine breathes out hard through the nose to stop a gasp of triumph. She could kiss her.

“You know that the second we turn our backs, there will be a knife in there?”

“I trust her.”

Rectification: she will kiss her. Probably not now, probably at the end of this - but this bile in her stomach sweetens, the homicidal pulsions evaporate into thin air as Chloe's words echo in her mind, louder even than the bullet from Drake's firearm. Despite the rebels holding them at gunpoint, she allows a content smile on her lips.

 

Nadine couldn't say how many times Chloe's been close to death. She screams when Parashurama’s axe swings to her head, almost decapitating her, stopping an inch away from the tender skin. She can't help but panic when the water reaches their chin, soon drowning their lips and muffling their cries - she couldn't care less if Drake died, but she couldn't bear to see Chloe suffocate at her side. Chloe’s the type to die first.

So when the ground breaks under Chloe's feet, Nadine doesn't hesitate and jumps after her, even though she can't know what's waiting for them a building down. She guesses that's what she does now. Running after Chloe getting herself into trouble. Chloe running back to her to fix one of Nadine's bursts of anger.

Nadine kills, Nadine protects. Chloe just has to look at her, working her trick with those grey eyes of hers, and every muscle of Nadine's body relaxes like under a drug.

The men, or what used to be _her_ army ( _traitors_ ) guard the chopper ahead, but Chloe looks around at her, reassurance in her eyes. So Nadine straightens. Settling another smile on her face, one she borrowed from her partner.

“Relax.” she tells Drake. “You'll live longer.”

Chloe follows suit, leaving Drake blinking with bewilderment. “I am _so_ proud.”

Frazer does her best Frazer imitation and recklessly climbs into the chopper. Nadine prevents Orca from throwing her off. They crash together, more bruises, more adventures to share.

And suddenly there's no more men in their path, no one else between them and the Tusk and Chloe hands the artifact to Nadine, almost carelessly. Nadine looks down at the thing that's going to save her life.

Every stumble in their wake has led to this moment where she can finally see her fate in her hands. Every step of the way leads to Chloe leaving her behind. Nadine has called it. Nadine is rarely wrong.

“I’m tired of walking away.”

She hesitates. There’s this unfelt before terror, growing and spreading like holly in her veins. She remembers her dad, downed by a contract he shouldn't have signed. She remembers Chloe’s, abused by his need of discovery. Then she remembers Adler, crushed by his own pulsions, and the two Drakes, driven by obsession.

Half of them are dead. The ones that are still standing don't deserve to walk the earth.

She can't have Chloe's name added to the list.

So she murmurs softly, some kind of resignation in her voice: “You'll die.”

Chloe smiles. “I can live with that.”

Nadine isn't sure she can.

“You selfish dickhead.” she wants to say. “You forced me all the way to this adventure. You forced me to help you, to protect you, and now you want to give death a hug. Like everything I did didn't matter. Like what I said, like what I felt didn't matter.”

The truth is, Nadine doesn't have much else to live for. People will mourn Chloe. Lovers will spread roses on her grave and tell their friends all about her, how great she was, how smart and bold she was. She's got friends. She's got family. Nadine's empty.

She slowly looks down at the Tusk in her hand. The gemstones reflect the beams of the sun, bouncing them back to still on the grass and her face. “Nee.” she mutters suddenly, before violently springing to the jeep where she stands stubbornly next to Drake. “Out.” she commands, barely glancing at him. Her eyes get stolen by this look on Chloe’s face, this surprise mixed with pride casting rays of light. “I call shotgun.”

Drake yields and she hops on by Chloe’s side. She has to bite her lip to stop the smile from spreading any further; a little more and it could eat her whole face.

 

“Partner?”

There's an open hand, an open grin. Nadine imitates them both. Elbows smack after palms do and their laugh echoes, contagious enough to charm Drake and his pack of smokes.

“Partner.” she replies, symbiosis in their mind bound by friendship, the kind she never had and never wished she had but has today anyways - and she knows now she'd rather die than have to let go of Frazer.

The Tusk remains in Drake's hand. She doesn't think about taking it back, instead knocks out the cigarette between his teeth. He pities his loss, looking below, while Nadine watches Chloe laugh. It's an interesting sight, one she could easily grow accustomed to in the break of dawn. In the rather short period of time they've known each other, she's learned to know all the different laughs of Chloe Frazer, but her most favorite one is the one bubbling out of her lips when provoked by Nadine's deadpan jokes, or some gesture the mercenary does thinking it's natural but actually bursts a ball of hilarity in Frazer’s head.

The pizza’s good. It changes from the MREs they had to share during the past few days, and Nadine even successfully manages to block out all of Drake's complains. She also learns to like Meenu, the little girl that's taken a soft spot for Chloe. Nadine's always been fond of children, especially ones with a personality - and this kid can sure hold her own since she single-handedly shuts Drake down.

“Don't ruin the moment.” Meenu tells the man that could be her prison father while handing him a slice of pizza.

Really, Nadine could grow accustomed to all that. Settlement has always been a fear of hers because it undoubtedly leads to imprisonment. However, she feels like she can change that definition today, looking at Chloe and her mouth full of cheese, Meenu and this adult-like seriousness in the sincere eyes, and even Sam Drake, dried blood in his nose she would have had the pleasure to be the one to break.

“Anyone feel like sleeping?” Chloe asks above the soft music playing on the radio.

“That's all that's on my mind.” Nadine replies with a worn sigh, unfolding her limbs tiringly.

“I have room in the shop for you!” Meenu does in an excited cry.

Chloe smiles fondly, and fondles with her hip bag. “Best price in all India, right?”

“It's free.” the girl adds with an imposing shake of the head.

Nadine fights against ruffling the top of her head.

“But-”

“You bought pizza. The best I can do is give shelter!”

Chloe tilts her head to the side, as if to say: ‘well, if we bought pizza…’. Nadine steps up to them, the empty box in hand.

“You mind if you show it to us? I haven't seen a proper bed in weeks.”

Meenu looks up to her, light radiating off her eyes. “Sure! Come, follow me!”

“Thank you.” Nadine replies, ruffling her hair.

Chloe stands beside her as she throws the box in the public bin of the market. Nadine feels the nudge, soft and playful. “You're good with this.”

Nadine shrugs as if the thought never came to her. “I like children. They're honest. It's when they grow up that they get screwed up.”

“Positivity.” Chloe scowls gently. Nadine rolls her eyes without meaning it.

She snaps her fingers at Drake who's eye-love-making his last bite of pizza. “Get up. Meenu is hosting us for the night.”

His head snaps to her so violently that she hopes for a second that he twisted his neck. “Does she have a running shower too?”

“You'll ask her.”

Drake springs to his feet, hastingly shoving the slice into his trap to bounce to Meenu’s side. Nadine watches the girl squint and command him to calm down. Really, she’s impressed by her nerves.

“It’s my pa’s room.” Meenu does, showing off the key to Nadine. She takes it with another grateful nod. “He rents it when we're short on money.”

“It's very nice of you.” Chloe does sweetly.

But Nadine frowns, considering the kid before her. “Where's your dad today?”

She feels Chloe cringe next to her, but Meenu doesn't take offense. “He's fighting the rebels. But he should be back soon because their chief is killed. He won't mind, promise!”

“Uh- sorry to intrude, but… do I get a room?” They turn to Drake, who seems suddenly embarrassed to have even spoken up. In the next second he defers and shakes his head before his own naivety. “Nah, I'll go with the couch. If there's one, of course. You know what, if there's a straw mattress, I'll take it!”

Chloe slowly turns to Nadine and raises a brow. The ex-mercenary stares at that obvious question with resignation.

“Oraait.” she yields, grumpily stepping back. She rolls the key between her thumb and forefinger one more time before throwing it to Drake. It hits the middle of his palm. The man stares down at it in shock.

Ten seconds later, he rises his head back to Nadine, mouth hanging slack, eyes maybe slightly haggard.

“Take this room.” Chloe tells him. “We’ll have the couch.”

He shakes himself awake. “Um… Chloe-”

“Don't argue, dude.” she adds, patting his shoulder. “You're the one that had to work undercover.”

Nadine observes his shoulders sag with arms folded to her chest. He's a mess, barely hanging together by a thread that’s about to snap, and Nadine deserves a bed, and Chloe deserves a bed… but somehow, she feels pity for him. Sure, she’s known him for longer than Frazer has, having worked with him, seen what he's capable of both good and bad ( _traitor_ ), but Drake's also saved her from getting shot when he could have easily spread her brains instead like he tried in the past.

“Thank you.” Chloe says this same night after Nadine's switched off the light and brought the blanket to her chin. They've turned the sofa bed into a large sleepover, improvised pillows with resting cushions. “For Sam.”

Nadine turns on her side to watch Chloe's feet wiggle, uncovered by the paper-thin sheet she got hold of. “It's nothing.”

“Nah, it’s not nothing.”

Maybe minutes pass, she isn’t sure. She counts the seconds by listening to Chloe’s breaths, from irregular to doze. It's a calming sound into the quiet of the apartment, barely broken by the noise of the street, of the people hurrying home during the curfew, shouting at their reckless neighbor to close the damn shutters.

It’s normal for her to have trouble falling asleep after a mission. Her mind’s wheering and her muscles ache, skin scarred and painful everywhere while her whole body screams for a well-deserved and dreamless nap. Usually, she’d irritate herself to death. Here, she feels like she can daydream all night with the cradle of Chloe’s breathing.

It looks like Nadine isn’t the only one having trouble sleeping.

“To get back to Sam…” It isn’t that it’s a forbidden subject, but she has already came to the conclusion that this case is closed. So yes, talking about the elder Drake this late in the night after they’ve just cheated death doesn’t really interest Nadine. “I know you don't like him very much-”

“Understatement.” Nadine grouches, stirring on her other side.

“-but he deserved this tonight. I think you might have made his life a little lighter.”

“He's not the only one to have a hard life.” Chloe sighs. Nadie screws her face up into a wince, admitting her mistake. “But I see what you mean. ...I apologize.”

“Ah, it’s fine. We’re two dickheads, after all.”

Nadine snorts and purposefully tickles Chloe’s bare foot. In response, she receives a kick in the boob that tears her an ‘oof'.

“Uncalled for!” she mutters, rubbing the spot Chloe hit. Thanks to her, her nipple was now tingling. It definitely wasn’t due to the proximity of their body. Still, she calls out:

“ ...Frazer.”

Comes the droopy voice of Chloe in a whisper. “Still here, Ross.”

“Good night.”

“You too, china.”

 

Nadine’s had her share of men and their stare. She’s proud to think of herself as observant enough to recognize the early signs of incoming annoyance. A man in rut is everything but discreet and sees every single move as a reciprocity. They’re easier to trick too, which makes them simple targets to work with - and Nadine had naively thought that partnering up with a woman would instantly erase all the inconveniences she had during every single one of her past missions.

The trickster became the tricked one.

Because Chloe _flirts_ . Whenever Nadine looks at her in a slightly different way, or cares after her, or puts them in a situation that could be called embarrassing, she can’t help herself to instantly drive the nail in and crack something about Nadine having a _crush_ for her, or some shit like that. But it’s okay, because Nadine’s learnt to accept her partner and how she is. Chloe does flirts with everyone. She fake-asks out the bartender and makes a crude remark about the tight jeans of this meaty sportsman. She even _winks_ at the mirror, for fuck’s sake. Nadine suspects that she licks her reflection when no one’s around to witness.

“I’m off. I’ll leave hot water for you.”

“How considerate. But wouldn’t it be cheaper if we shared a shower?”

Nadine’s best tool is to roll her eyes and redden her cheeks a little. Yet she doesn’t lock the bathroom door when she showers. Chloe hasn’t peeked yet to make her scream.

But Chloe peeks a lot, even when Nadine’s overly dressed.

Norway’s silent. Its fjords spread for kilometers under her winter boots, great patches of pure white blinding the eye, temperature competing with the tundra of the coastline and its glaciers. It’s a nice change from the soaking heat of Middle India.

Nadine drops on the edge of the shore. Her frozen heels sink into the snow. She doesn’t mind the cold pouring out of her mouth in clouds because she feels the heat of Chloe’s eyes at her back when she gazes up to the northern lights.

“It’s beautiful.” Nadine voices. Her voice is deafened by the silence neighbouring.

“Yeah.”

Chloe falls at her side, slightly off behind her, so Nadine has to turn her head to see what she’s really looking at.

“Alright, what is up with you?”

“I found my own natural phenomenon to observe, that’s it.”

Nadine rolls her eyes and reverts her attention to the lights.

“Dankie. For coming here with me.”

“It wouldn’t have been the same alone, right?”

“Right. It feels nice to have someone to share this with.”

Chloe nods, and the trail of her gaze leaves a scorch everywhere it goes on Nadine’s skin. She’s covered by countless layers of cloth and this lip balm she’s practically flooded her lips with makes them shine like covered in grease. She gives Chloe back her stare. Her lips are greasy just the same. Eyes sparkling with the same light.

“You mind if I-”

“Don’t leave a girl hanging.”

She leans in when Chloe does.

For the first time Chloe closes her eyes when Nadine doesn’t. It’s as beautiful as the green of the northern lights splashing across the bridge of her nose. Nadine isn’t sure what to do with the uptick of this greasy mouth and the slide of this cheeky tongue against her bottom lip. Perhaps Chloe wants more. Perhaps Chloe wants a game again.

She pulls away when Chloe pushes harder, hungrily against her mouth.

“That was nice.” she says blankly, turning back to the skies.

She misses the pain ripping Chloe’s face very narrowly.

 

She's being bought dinner.

By Chloe Frazer.

She couldn't have said no, the dickhead had tricked her into believing they were off to the gym for a late night training. She had instead called a cab for this extremely fancy London restaurant.

She should've known something was wrong when Chloe got out of their hotel bathroom all dolled up. Really, she trusts her partner way too much.

“I don't like this.”

Chloe rolls her eyes with such strength that it becomes loud.

“You don’t like anything.”

“You're wearing a nightdress and ballet shoes.” Nadine groans, eyeing Chloe's neckline. “And I'm in a fucking tracksuit.”

“I'll admit: that's my fault.”

“Ja.”

“But you'd look good without it too.”

Nadine looks down the menu to avoid catching a blush. Chloe would pride herself on it.

“But if it bothers you that much…” the thief says cockily, “I brought spare clothes just in case.”

Nadine squints as Chloe ruffles in her bag. She pulls out the little back heels, the black slinky pants and a new top Nadine's never seen before that shows off her chest and her arms. She highly suspects Chloe of buying it for the occasion.

She looks at the gift in the open hand, a knot tying itself in her stomach.

“Frazer-”

“Just put it on, chap.”

“What the hell’s this about?”

Chloe's hand falls slightly. She settles the clothes on her lap. Nadine can see her fiddling with them under the napkin of the table.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m asking why you're doing this.” Nadine replies frankly. She's not sure why her heart hammers her ribs that strongly. “I don't understand the gesture.”

Chloe stares at her lap, and her fingers moving. She shrugs indecisively, sticking a fake confident smile on her mask of a face. Nadine sees right through it. “It's a present, love. Isn't it obvious?”

“It is.” she agrees. “But it's been two months since we've gotten the Tusk to the Ministry of India, and a week since we've settled in England. You've had time to offer me a gift sooner.”

Chloe sighs loudly. “You're not catching up fast, are you?”

“Sorry?”

The thief hands her the clothes again. “Go put them on. Wine’s on me.”

“You do realize we share a wallet!”

“Just put them on, smartass.”

So Nadine puts them on, and when she comes back, clinks her wine with Chloe’s.

This night gown embraces her curves beautifully, valuing her flexible tone and the fat on her ass that Nadine likes to stare at when Chloe gets up to, as she says, “fix my eyeshadow”. There’s triumph written on her face when she comes back though, leaving Nadine to guess that her new layer of mascara has been particularly well applied. It doesn’t stop Nadine from noticing that Chloe’s taken her bra off. As if her neckline wasn’t pretty enough already.

The wine’s fantastic. French cuisine in England outdoes itself.

“Don't tell me you dated Cutter too.”

“I didn't date him.”

“Ah, you scared me for a s-”

“I _hooked up_ with him, there's a nuance.”

Nadine chokes on her tongue. “You-! Don't tell me you've tried every treasure hunter still in the business, please!”

“Well… I didn't do Sam, if that's where your worries are at.”

“Ja, that's where they were at. But I was thinking more of Sullivan.”

“Oh...”

“So did you?”

“... you're going to get mad.”

“My god, Frazer! My god! Sullivan!”

“He's a nice man, he is! Don't mock me, I had just gotten out _alive_ of the claws of a warlord…it was in a moment of madness, okay?”

“I can't believe this! Victor goddamn Sullivan!”

“Repeating his name won't save you, you know.”

“I'm hoping it will pay those years of therapy I now need.”

“That’s a clear exaggeration! You know, Nadine, there's no hiding that you've been with weirder than me.”

“I like women.”

It slips out naturally in the midst of laughter. There’s a nod, a second of silence, and Chloe simply raises her glass.

“You beat me to it.”

And Nadine just exhales, all this weight chased from her shoulders, allowing her to stand straight and proudly in front of Chloe's grin. She thinks back about that one time their lips had brushed, during a few seconds, leaving her with the taste of cold in her mouth.

“When have you known?” the thief asks with curiosity.

Nadine fists her glass. She hasn’t prepared herself to discuss this subject tonight but strangely, it doesn’t bother her as much as it should have. Maybe it is because she knows Chloe is no judging soul. A trickster one, maybe. But never judging.

“Always.” she replies matter-of-factly. “Now, more than ever.”

“Do tell.”

“As you might have noticed, I have a complicated relationship with men.”

“Complicated is the word…”

“Ja.” Nadine chuckles. “The only ones I trusted were mine, because I chose them and trained them personally. Because I was their superior too, I knew they wouldn’t betray me. So when they did… I guess it was the last straw. The others, the one I worked with, or for, were means to an end.”

“Gosh, do I get you-!” Chloe does amusedly. “Men are so gullible sometimes it’s a sorry sight. Once the pants are off, all is well in fun town to them.”

Nadine cackles, hitting the table with her palm in an unladylike manner that has Chloe join her uncontrollably.

“I remember stroking Adler’s hair like he was a pet,” Nadine chortles, the wine getting to her head, or perhaps it’s just Chloe, “and the imbecile would _melt_ like it's his first time being touched. I found it pathetic at the time- come to think of it, it’s a great story to share!”

Chloe claps, head thrown back in laughter. “Nooo! _The_ Rafe Adler, purring like a cat in heat?”

“Purring, ja!”

“Gosh, that reminds me of Nate’s erectile dysfunction.”

Nadine gasps, shocked at the words, then bursts into another fit. Uneventfully for her, the ridicule image is stuck behind her closed eyelids no matter how much she brushes away the tears. “You’re bullshitting me!”

“Am not!” Chloe almost yells. Nadine can’t be mad that they’re the loudest ones in the entire restaurant. “Poor dude, I shouldn't be talking about him like that, he has a reputation to keep… But he did have trouble getting hard, it’s a fact! I got really angry the first time that incident happened, selfishly thought it was because he didn’t like my body… turned out he only was in it for the famous ass and couldn’t for the love of it fuck for it.”

Nadine makes bubbles in her wine when she tries to take a sip.

“But he’s settled now, isn’t he? That means he finally found a cure to his… illness.”

“Married,” Chloe corrects, slowly calming down, “and happily so. His wife, good friend of mine, is actually pregnant.”

“I almost feel bad for her.”

Chloe pricks her steak. “You’re not fond of marriage?”

“I’m not fond of Drake.” Nadine rectifies. “But sure, marriage neither. It’s never been an option for me.”

“Because you’ve never been in love?”

The cutlery rings when Nadine sets it down near the plate. Chloe must notice her sudden coldness because she instantly jumps back on her feet.

“I wasn’t trying to pry into your life, love, just looking to know more. Of course, there was the signals, like when we kissed for example - learnt to avoid that one adventure - but we’ve known each other for what - four months, and I’m only now learning that you’re g-”

“Why did you invite me here tonight then?”

“Huh?”

“If you’re only learning that I’m gay, why plan this date before? Couldn’t it have been dangerous?”

Chloe tilts her head to the side, smirks. “I like to live at risk. Where’s the fun in safety?”

Nadine leans back against the backrest, eyes narrowing with suspicion. “So it’s a date.”

“Only if you want it to be.”

She stares. Chloe’s game just turned into another annoyance. “Don’t turn the tables on me, Frazer, you’re the one that made the move first.”

“Did you like it, though?”

Nadine drops her head, feeling a new wave of fluster coming up her cheeks. “I can’t say I didn’t. Just figured it’s what you do. You flirt with and without mistletoes, and your job often involves sweet-talking people in and out of things.”

Chloe spreads her arms. “I am _so_ unemployed at the moment.” Nadine’s closed expression makes Chloe sigh. “Come on, china, you were my _partner_ , I didn’t have to sweet-talk you into anything. Sure, bullying you is a great distraction - but I’m done with lying! I’ve explored every aspect of it, concluded that it didn’t bring anything healthy to the table. Remember I asked you twice during our search for the Tusk?”

Nadine makes a sound that’s a paradoxical mix of a gasp and a breath. “I took it for a joke-”

“I was putting out feelers. But then you rescued my arse so many times and went as far as jumping on a bomb-strapped train with an insufferable dickhead as a guide, and I knew we were in it for a ride. ... _damn it_ , we even went as far as kissing each other.”

Nadine’s mouth snaps chut. Tentatively, she nods, squaring back her shoulders and setting her heart on slow mode. The button is broken. It keeps whirring, carriage speeding.

“You asked me out tonight to see where the ride could drop us off to.” she concludes in this gruff way she has when she tries to appear as normal as any other can feel in that same situation.

“Right.”

“So what do we do now?”

 

She pushes Chloe against the wall, back first, body quivering. It takes her a while to fully realize that she's been kissing her; it felt so natural. Casual. Alive.

“My god-” she says then, slipping away.

Chloe's hands on Nadine's cheeks slide down her collarbone. “You okay?”

Nadine nods, feverishly. “Ja, I am. It's just… I finally get to experience what it's like. Knowing you want this too.”

Chloe smiles, lips swollen red. A teasing eyebrow raised, she rubs herself against Nadine's crotch, tearing a groan from both of their throats. “You wanna keep going?”

Nadine feels her partner’s left hand lock with hers and guide it up. She briskly gains back control of it, presses her palm to the side of Chloe's breast.

Her breath itches up.

“Guess that counts as an answer.” Chloe purrs and Nadine closes the distance between their lips.

“Chloe, shut it.”

"Love me a top.”

 

“You’re… not gonna like it.”

“Just submit it.”

“Alright - but before I do, promise me not to go wild.”

“Can't promise that.”

“Ah! honestly that one was easy, I paved you the path for it.”

“Frazer. Tell me.”

Chloe sighs, and screws her eyes shut with a wince, as though readying herself for a storm. Nadine looks down at her with a suspicious squint. No, she isn’t going to wriggle out of this by showing off her knickers, not this time.

“Because we have no other choice…” Chloe says slowly, “we have to ask Nate.”

Nadine almost loses her balance, and it isn’t due to the current. “Repeat that?!”

“I’m serious, Nadine.” her partner does, turning to her, eyebrows knitted together in worry. “We go out there, we get instantly stopped by the patrols or killed by the pirates. With the little ammo we have left, I don't wanna risk that.”

“You’re telling me that Drake is the only one that can help?!”

Chloe raises an hand to ease her down. “I’m telling you our list of friends is short. And that the list of friends in Malaysia is even shorter.” Nadine huffs loudly and heads over the table scattered with maps of the area, hitting the wood with her clenched fists. “Look… we won’t even have to ask Nathan. Elena’s the one usually in charge of the pap-”

“You know she killed my men with him, right?”

Chloe looks harshly at her. “I could be sorry to say that, sweetheart, but your _men_ tried to kill my friends first. And last I recall, they aren’t even your men anymore.”

There’s a lump in Nadine’s chest when she looks down the maps, a shameful blush coming to her cheeks. She forces her lower lip to still by biting it, not really caring if it leaves a bruise there. “You sure it’s the only way?”

Chloe’s next to her. Nadine feels her hand on her shoulder, going to cup her cheek and gently raise her chin. Her thumb brushes the bitten lip - Nadine unclenches her jaw, letting her body relax under the loving touch.

“I need you to be okay with this.” the thief murmurs, staring straight into Nadine’s eyes - and there’s no way Nadine can say no to that.

“I’ll need time.” she replies, straightening.

“I know.”

“I won’t hug them a hello.”

“Called that one.”

“But I won’t kick them either.”

“Good to know.”

Nadine gathers herself with a breath in. Tentatively, they smile at one another, until Nadine leans upwards slightly and captures those two plump lips. Chloe lets out a content hum, diving into it like she can never get enough.

Would it stretch a little longer and Nadine would be inclined to finger Frazer there, on this wooden uncomfortable table and the maps strewed upon it.

Chloe pulls away first for once, their teeth about to meet when she chuckles. “Please tell me you didn’t promise me to not go wild.”

Nadine lifts an amused brow as her partner playfully wriggles her fingers under her shirt.

“Paved you the path for it.” she echoes and she lunges, loving the sting of Chloe’s nails digging into her sides. Chloe jumps, wrapping her thighs around Nadine’s waist and it leaves an ideal path for her hands to grope that arse, working the muscles of her back to support Chloe’s weight - and she can hear Chloe loving it, the strength used to protect her from a fall, through the loud moans breathed in her bitten mouth.

Her lips only feel the light of air during the single second it takes for Chloe to take off her shirt. After that, it’s all is well in fun town to them.

 

Drake’s aged.

He has more white hair than the last time she saw him, when she locked him up to die in the burning ship. She secretly hopes it’s because of the night terrors she gave him.

She observes from afar, in the little skiff they have rent for the month, the huge salvage boat the married couple owns. The size difference is comparable to a whale’s and a single plankton’s.

Nadine doesn’t like it.

Chloe, jet black hair up in a rare messy bun, stands on the deck of the enemy with the biggest grin Nadine’s ever seen. Drake’s in front of her, talking manically with plenty incoherent gestures of the hand. There’s fondness in his eye when he looks down at Chloe, instantly replaced by love when Elena Fisher comes to his side. He locks his hand with his wife’s in a heartbeat, finger playing with her ring.

The only memories Nadine has of those calloused hands are painful. Because she’s seen a side of that man who now lives an idyllic life, a side of violence and venom. Her back remembers his eighty kilograms slamming into her, stabbing through the floor of Libertalia’s ruins and propelling them to a neck-breaking fall.

She also remembers that same hand, with the ring-crowned finger, taking away the gun that was coming to pierce her head open in two.

“China! Get your arse over here!”

She looks up to see Chloe wave over for her. Nadine has never felt so insulted in her life.

"What is it?” she groans after taking a few steps on the hostile’s deck.

Chloe just bounces up to her, linking an arm around her arm. “Come say hi, it’d be rude not to.”

"I told you I couldn’t do that and you’re still forcing me to do it anyway-”

“I don’t want you to _hug_ them. I want you to know we’re all on the same side, now.”

“I’m not trusting a Drake, ever again-”

“Hey, I betrayed his ass twice and he totally forgot it happened. Relax.”

“It’s a totally ridiculous and useless thing to do-”

“Nate, Elena!” and Nadine would rather choke on her tongue than being here but she is, in front of the pair, dragged by who she thought would have her back. She raises her chin high, eyes blazing, brow daring. “Look who’s here!”

Drake’s gaze meets hers and freezes on the spot. She sees his face turn a violent shade of red, then a purple, then a surprising white as he blabbers some inconsistency. Fisher on his side breaks the few steps that divide them. She holds out her hand.

“Elena Fisher. It’s nice to meet you officially.”

Nadine analyzes the hand before shaking it, considering that there’s no knife in there. “You must have heard good stories.” she says impulsively, and Frazer winces.

“I have,” blondie replies without losing countenance, “but I know that there’s always two sides to each story. As the saying goes, ‘objectivity is key’!”

Nadine releases her hand and the woman steps back to her husband. There’s a knowing smile on her face that Nadine realizes she has too.

Perhaps it won’t be as hard as she first thought it’d be.

“Drake.” she snaps then, broadening her shoulders. Her opponent does the same, face still pale.

“Nadine.” he replies without missing a beat. So he still has balls. And she still hates the sound of her name in his mouth. “You’re working with Chloe on that one deal too?”

“Oh, we’re working together _permanently_.” Chloe steps in with a devilish smirk on.

Drake blinks stupidly a few times. “Really? I- huh… that’s something...”

Paralleling the stature of the couple, Nadine grabs Chloe’s wrist and mimics that fleer.

“We’re together.”

“Yeah, I heard that the first time.” he does, slowly gaining back color. Fisher next to him starts cackling in her sleeve. “ _What_?”

“We’re _together_.” Nadine repeats a little louder, in case that with the forties comes deafness. Drake eyes her with uncertainty.

“That’s the mid-life crisis ruining his brain cells.” pities Chloe in a not-so-discreet murmur, and Nadine snorts. “Give him time, that’s quite a shock.”

“What am I not getting-?” Drake croaks out, and Fisher tugs on his shirt.

“It’s alright, Nate. You know Cassie hasn’t stopped playing hide-and-seek all morning, you should check if she’s in a barrel somewhere. I’ll handle these fine ladies.”

“No, really, what do you mean by-”

“Nate, go!”

“-on’t push me-”

“So, the papers!” Fisher does, hands on her hips, after she’s watched her husband run down the deck for their girl. Nadine reports her attention to the fragile-looking woman. It’s hard not to get amused by the situation when she’s supposed to wish this whole family was dead and buried. “I did manage to work my magic up here and they should send them by fax today. You’re gonna be legally _untouchable_.”

“Ugh, thank you so much, sweetheart” Chloe says, diving in for a hug. “You have no idea how much it’s going to save us from a nightmare-ish search.”

“Trust me, I’ve been there.” Fisher chuckles, hugging her back. “Just… try and stay out of trouble. You have the permits, meaning you'll only get to repel the border patrols.”

“Will do, love. Though the eventual pirates might take a peek at Nadine’s arms and run away screaming, ‘s all I say!”

Nadine rolls her eyes, feeling herself melt under the familiarity of the conversation. Fisher humorously pulls off an impressed face at her biceps. “I wouldn’t dare bench-press against that!” she laughs. “I’m a yoga-girl, not that much of a fighter.”

“Don’t believe her.” Chloe slides in to Nadine, who nods appreciatively. After all, this tiny blonde lady did sneak right before the nose of her ex-army to steal a vehicle, all of that unscarred and unbothered. There’s armor under that pearl skin.

“What yoga?” she asks, interested.

“Vinyasa!” Fisher smiles angelically. Nadine could be fooled.

Now that Drake has left the surroundings, sun makes way onto the deck and lightens the air. She can see herself bargaining with that woman that took part in her fall.

She’s forgiven Frazer for the betrayal. There’s no reason she can’t understand the odds leading to the trail of bodies Fisher left in her wake. Quite frankly, Nadine would have left a bloodbath behind her if she had been in their seat.

Chloe’s thumb glides into her palm, soothing the skin there, letting it grow warm. That’s it, the thread that holds Nadine together, that allows her to welcome in and give in to a lull she never thought she could ever experience. Beating the crap out of the Drakes won’t ease her mind, she knows that now.

Doesn’t mean she won’t hold a grudge against one or two in particular.

There’s wails and unhappy babbling before she shows up, butt tucked under Drake’s elbow, little fat fists pumping his shirt for support. There’s wide brown eyes, sparkling with wonder as she looks around, taking in the seabirds above and the ocean running around the ship. Then this curiosity stills on the newcomers.

“I found her in a barrel,” he murmurs to Fisher who shakes her head.

“Told you.”

There’s a silence between the moment the father turns to the women and the slow inspiration he takes, voice strangely wet: “Cassie, this is Chloe. You can call her auntie.”

Chloe rises a hand to her chest. Nadine doesn’t know why, but hers is riddled with raw emotions. They burst as soon as Chloe holds out her hands to hold the baby. Cassie willingly goes to be protected against the new female chest - Nadine can’t blame her, it’s a very comfortable place to rest on, and instantly directs her gaze at Chloe's hair, balling her fists to catch the wild strands from the bun, going down to feel the bump of the nose, then the plump dark-colored lips, watching with amazement the lipstick color the tip of her fingers. The ethereal red necklace comes last, its pearls tweaked and fondled like treasure.

Nadine's never seen anything more beautiful.

She's on the verge of tearing up when Cassie, introspection concluded, turns her bright gaze to her.

“Huh, Cassie, this is…” Drake hesitates, but Fisher doesn't. Nodding at Chloe, she gives the authorization needed and Cassie travels from the ample chest to the brawny arms with no form of regret.

“Cassie?” Nadine does, and the baby takes one of her brown locks, watches it bounce with great concentration. Nadine doesn't mind her voice breaking a little.

“Short for Cassandra.” Fisher replies, the softest of smiles spreading in her eyes.

“Oh, Nate… you named her after your mum-” Chloe realizes in a hush, and Nadine diverts her gaze from the hypnose of the baby's to Chloe's.

 

It gets to be normal, taking their clothes off, putting on the strap-on. They're making love in the tossed bed that same evening, instantly after waving goodbye the Drake family. Nadine’s got her thighs wrapped around Chloe’s waist, her hips shaking restlessly, when she says:

“So you’re an auntie now, eh?” between breaths, and Chloe’s silky hair falling down her breast.

Chloe has a throat laugh, and she captures Nadine’s nipple with her teeth, making her arch up.

“I’m being fucked by an _auntie_.” she goes on, gasping a little, going down to grope Chloe’s arse.

“Careful now,” Chloe says, thrusting inside her, deeper. Nadine understands the revenge. She moans loudly to voice it, “you might become her second auntie.”

Nadine digs her nails into Chloe’s buttcheeks. They press their mouths together, hungrily, bodies drowning. She loves the feeling of Chloe’s hips bulking against her, their pelvis meeting, and that treacherous hand sliding to her clit and toying with it with animosity.

“Is that- is that a marriage proposal?”

The sunlight of the open porthole pours its colors on Chloe’s olive skin. It puts the accent on her eyes screwed shut, and those love-kissed lips, and that sweat on her forehead, her whole bareness, painting her body gold.

“That’s…” Chloe does, panting in her mouth, stealing a kiss there and there whenever she has the time, “that’s whatever you want it to be, love.”

It takes her by surprise, that sly scratch mixed with that ensnaring hip thrust. Nadine has no choice but to let the orgasm ravish her, shock her every fiber. She lives a little more in Chloe’s arms, their breasts pressed together, and their mouths too, so her long cry gets trapped in Chloe’s throat like she’s feeding on it, on them, inhaling on that same bed.

And after, she goes down on Chloe to make her endure exactly what she put her through. The pleasure she feels upon hearing those obscene groans shake her even harder. She likes to watch Chloe’s face when she comes too, that frown tugging at the corner of her lip like a pained wince, that slow whimper brushing back her hair scattered on the pillow.

She tips up her head and kisses her long and deep.

“Chloe.”

“Nadine?”

“Thank you.” she says. Chloe’s hand comes to cup her cheek. “I mean it.”

“You don’t have to thank me for anyth-”

“I just want you to know.” She breathes hard through the nose, the way she always does when she’s overwhelmed. “I want you to know that you’re the first that’s ever been loved by me.”

She moves up and lets Chloe rest her head on her arm.

“Nadine…”

“You don’t have to say anything back. I’m good with what I have. Really.”

“Nadine. I love you too, stubborn dumbbell.”

Her thumb is pressing hard into Nadine’s jaw, and the corner of Nadine’s lip trembles. She thinks she’s crying, just for a second, because the fingers come back under her eye. They smell like salt and their shared come.

 

She’s awakened by the recognizable shutter sound from Chloe’s camera phone, and a distinct “Shit-!” murmured by the person responsible. Nadine stirs, unhappily tilting her head to the source of this tantrum.

The first thing she sees this morning is Chloe’s face screwed up into a wince like a kid caught hand in the cookie jar. Nadine stays silent for a while. When her partner peeks her eyes open, it’s to rise her hands up in the air in surrender.

“He ran in that direction.”

Nadine points at the phone proudly pressed in the faulty hand. “I can see he managed to go far.”

“Yeah, he’s a speeder, that one. You’re gonna have a hard time bagging him.”

“Already caught her in the act.”

“Oh, so it’s a she...?”

“Thank god it’s a she-” Nadine does before banging that mouth up, earning complete surrender in response. They both smell of bad morning breath and greasy hair.

It’s perfect.

“Tell me what you’re doing with that picture.” she asks then, resting her head on Chloe’s shoulder to watch her play with the filters.

“Well…” she begins, smacking her lips together. “I’m thinking about sharing our love on Instagram.”

“I forbid it.”

“Scared to ruin your reputation?”

“It’s already ruined.” Nadine laughs freely. A couple years ago she would’ve flinged a fist over anyone threatening to throw her off her throne in any way. Today, she’s resting on it.

“Nah, I think I’ll put that on my Story.” Chloe decides, flicking right. “Don’t worry, I’ll blackmail whoever takes a screenshot of it.”

Reassured, Nadine lets her take a few more pictures of them with awful fake bunny ears. It’s corny as hell. It totally destroys her scary take-no-shit attitude.

Chloe sends the worst one to Cutter with an heart emoji and the caption ‘five yrs already mwah’. Cutter replies in the minute with an unflattering low-angle selfie of him that shows off a triple chin and a thumb up. As a legend, a simple ‘enjoy yr day mates’. It still heats Nadine’s heart up. She doesn’t even know the englishman that well.

“Did he take a screenshot?” she asks like she doesn’t care.

Chloe pouts. “Sadly no. I would have loved to dig some dirt up on him.”

Nadine nuzzles her nose in her partner’s neck. They both terribly need a shower. “What’s the plan for today?”

Chloe fakes an intense reflexion and pushes her phone away on the bedside. “Well…” she begins, getting a hold of Nadine’s hand above the sheets, slowly brushing its back. “I had this very clear image of ropes and cuffs on my mind earlier on…”

“Mmh.”

“... but come to think of it, a skinny dip is the wonderful substitute of a morning cock.”

Nadine grunts as she sits away from Chloe’s comfortable chest. “I hate cocks.”

“I know you do.” Chloe does with a flirtatious wiggle of the brow that makes Nadine beam. In a second the thief is brutally out of bed, storming out in a flash onto the deck of their boat. “Last one in the ocean cleans the boat!”

Nadine throws the covers on the floor, running half-naked to join her. “You dick, _cheater_!”

She only hears Chloe's laugh echo as a response, and her body meeting the sea. Nadine hurries to the railing, leaning forwards to catch Chloe's head pierce through the waves. She floats in nothing but a pair of black panties and her red crop top, hair as an aura when she lies on her back, feet moving a little to stay in place.

“Well? Is my kitten scared to get w-”

Nadine lands in a bomb merely a meter next to her, totally submerging Frazer under pounds of liquid salt. The thief coughs and chokes while the ex-mercenary likes to laugh her heart out mercilessly.

“You _smartass_!”

“Takes one to know one!” Nadine quips back. “Shit, the current’s strong here.”

“Just… stay afloat. The waves aren't too high.”

“Ja, I just don't want to lose the boat, is all.”

“Please, it's Nate’s.”

“True!”

Chloe gets ahold of Nadine's feet, whose toes are peeking up from the sea. “Wow. That’s one nice view.”

Nadine looks down to her partner. “Is that because I got my tits out?”

“That's _definitely_ because you got your tits out.”

“Figured. Lose the knickers and we'd be a pair.”

“Anything for you, dear.” Chloe purrs, and the second later Nadine has the pleasure to watch the panties drift before her nose. “How d'you like it?”

The corner of Nadine's lips go up. “Bushy.”

Chloe's laugh awakes a fire in her belly. “And to think that I took beautician appointments just for your pretty mouth!”

Nadine receives a wave full of seaweed in the face. Spitting ungracefully, she observes their surroundings with spite. Hopefully the boat didn't go too far, and they barely have a kilometer to cross before the small jetty.

“We should get back to the cabin.” she says. “It’s breakfast o’clock.”

Chloe purrs again. She seems to do that quite a lot today, much to Nadine’s pleasure. “Why join their table when I’ve got a whole meal right here-?”

Nadine pushes Chloe’s head under a wave.

 

“Took you long enough.”

Nathan’s annoyed, of course. He may have the right to be, since the girls borrowed their private boat for the week, but he has the decency to keep the complains to a murmur. Besides, Nadine bets he’s still terrified of her, despite the years spent learning each other.

She hasn’t beat him up in five years. Improvement, right there.

“We were doing things.” Chloe says cryptically.

He shakes his head dismissively. “I don’t wanna know.”

“Don’t be a prude, sweetheart.”

He gasps. “Wh- have you _met_ me?” A blonde head slithers by his legs. He catches it before it has the possibility to run away. “Wow, there, kiddo. Where d’you think you’re going?”

“-to Ch’oe and “Dine!”

Cassie wriggles in her father’s arms, a four-year-old ball of energy to burn. Nadine’s seen her climb heights and face falls any other little girl would dream of in their nightmares. To her, it doesn’t matter that Cassie has Drake blood coursing through her veins. To her, Drake blood has worn out to be just Drake. Sometimes it's Nathan, sometimes it's Samuel, sometimes it's Elena.

Most of the time, though, it's Cassandra.

“Come on, little freak, you saw me yesterday!” Chloe says, taking Cassie to her arms with Drake’s amused eye roll.

“Are you calling my daughter a freak?”

“Why bother lying?”

“Don’t listen to her, Cass. Your aunt’s an horrible person.”

There’s that ache in her chest, throbbingly blissful, every time Chloe and Cassie interact. It’s that kind of love she could never put her finger on, the kind she hardly ever knew existed, hardly ever knew she could possibly feel. Sometimes, upon the light of a new morning shimmering through the curtains, Nadine wakes up with the sinking feeling that the bed at her side is cold. That it always has been.

Then Chloe’s head peeks from the covers, a disheveled mass of sleepy kisses with bedroom eyes. Chloe’s unshakeable. She’s the pillar of self-assurance Nadine can count on. The one stability that will live through hell, the only disorder she’ll allow sliding into her future.

Nadine finds herself loving chaos, chaos embodied by the two girls next to her.

“‘tie ‘Dine!” Cassie does, now squirming against Chloe’s chest to wobble her hands for the South-African to catch.

“Hey there, beastie.”

The sound that escapes Drake’s throat is the patchwork of an offended gasp and a snorted laugh. Nadine smirks triumphantly until Cassie evidently pulls on her locks.

“That’s it. I’m getting braids.”

Chloe brushes past her on her way to the cabin and the breakfast. “And I’ll get henna designs just for you, love.”

Nadine cleans her flip-flops on the mat as she enters the Drake family house, their youngest sat on her bicep. Nathan shuts the door behind her and sing-songs his wife’s name.

“I’m already up!” Elena shouts back from the kitchen. “Who do you think set the table?”

“Well I toasted the bread.”

“This isn’t a competition.”

“You always say that before you make it end up in a tickle fight.”

Nadine straps Cassie on her chair, pouring the girl an orange juice on the way. Elena briskly thanks her and hands her the jam her parents made. Nadine doesn’t have the heart to tell her that her folks can’t produce jam for crap.

“Dankie.”

“So what do you two have planned for today?” blondie asks while impressionantly taking away Cassie's orange juice just as the kid was about to knock it off the table.

Having stolen the nutella, Chloe hastens to pour a large spoon on top of her toast. “Cleaning the boat, mainly.”

Elena scoffs. “Did you guys go on a rampage again?”

“It was bloody.”

“God- I’ll give you clean sheets.”

“Thank you, sweetheart.”

“Maybe we're gonna go in town later that day. We have to ask an antique collector some questions.” Nadine says, squinting at the unhealthy amount of peanut jelly Chloe is now buttering her toast with. “My gut says we're in it for a while.”

“Ah, yes, the job.” Chloe echoes upon seeing Nathan and Elena's surprised faces. “We got a contract with several Ministries of Culture, aand... the pay has never been better!”

“It reminds me of when I had Shoreline.” Nadine wonders out loud. “We’ve basically been turned into artifact mercenaries.”

“Is it still a legal business?” Nathan asks, stabbing Cassie’s cornflakes in their milk to make them softer quicker.

Chloe turns to Nadine, a pout eating her face and almost breaking it into a diabolical smirk.

“Sure.” Nadine says with a shrug.

“Well, we’re in it with the Ministry of England, but if we get caught by, and I'm just making it up for the example, Japanese gold diggers, let's say we would have to save ourselves through our own personal ways.” Chloe adds quickly. There's nutella on her nose. Nadine wants to lick it off - but she has vegetarian principles.

Elena does a dramatic turn to her husband, fork threatening to fall off her fingers. “I didn't know we were housing spies?!”

“And you're living with an ex-professional thief.” he retorts. The look on his face shows off a wit Nadine rolls her eyes at.

“What are you now?”

“Happily married, father of one. Superhero at night.”

Cassie squirms on her chair upon hearing the familiar propellers of Sullivan’s seaplane.

“Right on time for the second batch!” Nathan does, merrily propelling himself off his chair to the front porch.

Sullivan got older, if even such a thing is possible. His mustache stands, whiter and more stylish than ever, and he limps a little when he arrives in the living room with his mouth full of complains about his back. Nadine shakes his hand all smiling, and Chloe takes him in for a hug. They instantly dive off to talk about their previous adventures when Samuel walks in last. He takes off his shoes beside the mat and gives Nadine an awkward smile that she breaks by taking his hand.

“Sam.”

“Nadine.” he replies, and she doesn’t miss the glimmer of pleasured surprise in his eye. “How are you guys’ holidays going?”

“I’d say well. Couldn’t ask for a better weather.”

“You know, I’m still digesting the fact that you’re dating Chloe-” he chuckles gauchely, pulling on his fingers like he doesn’t know where to put them. “I mean, isn’t it five years now?”

“It’s our anniversary today, ja.”

“Wow. You guys must really love each other.”

“... we do.”

“Sam!”

They’re interrupted by a real life tornado dashing on the ex-jailbird and welcoming him in with a hug.

“Hey, little brother- please tell me that smell is toasts, I’m starving.”

Nathan pulls away from his oldest with a hiccup-ish laugh. “I think Cassie ate them all.”

“All that’s left for me is the beautiful promise of a quick death, then.”

“C’mon. Got a new batch for ya.”

“Jesus Christ be blessed.”

There's Samuel and Nathan Drake at the table she's sitting at. Chloe holds her hand under the napkin as she discusses with Elena Fisher who adultly does the airplane with her daughter, and Victor Sullivan’s lighting his cigar. Nadine finds herself fond of Guadeloupe and its people. They're welcoming and a little too tactile, but good-hearted, she guesses. Against all odds, they stay true to their words. And if somehow they broke that promise, she can always clench her fists a second time.

Chloe leans over to her to steal a toast from Sam, kissing the corner of Nadine's lip doing so.

Nadine isn't sure what to call all that. They're her private army, maybe. With rifles of heart.

 

This day’s on the right path to go askew. It had started well, with the morning skinny dip and the breakfast with the Drakes. Government calling them, they had obliged and went on with their mission, cutting their anniversary short. Nadine couldn’t have possibly guessed that they had enemies here too in Guadeloupe. With Frazer’s usual luck, they had driven straight into a trap museum where they were supposed to check in with an antique collector that would have enlightened them about the location of their new artifact to “steal”.

“This is bullshit.” Nadine mumbles gruffily.

Chloe shifts beside her in the claustrophilic box-room where they have chosen to hide while waiting for the guards to stop their rounds. Nadine moves her hands in front of her, counting on touch to replace sight since any form of light would definitely alarm the patrols right out the door. She finds a cardboard box and sits on it, crossing her arms under her chest to express her anger even though Frazer isn’t much of a bat either.

There’s an audible snort that alarms her.

“What?”

“It’s just…” Chloe does, and she feels around for Nadine, linking their fingers when she finds the treasure. “We’re in the closet.”

Nadine doesn’t need eyes to argue.

“It’s a storeroom.”

“Nah, you don’t get it… We’re closeted. We aren’t out.”

“What the hell do you - oh.” Chloe snorts even louder and Nadine fears for their life. “That was terrible, Frazer. I’m utterly ashamed for you.”

“Oh my gosh-”

“We shouldn’t be joking right now. Not until we’ve come out.”

Chloe bursts. Nadine has to hold her head down between her breasts to choke her uncontrollable laugh.

“God-” she does, voice muffled, “t’s a bad idea to pin my head there, love-”

“Instinct kicked in.” Nadine whispers, unable to stop a smug smile from spreading despite the rising threat outside this closet.

“Your instinct is a horny one.”

“Frazer, that’s not the place-”

But her partner’s already turned her attention to kissing the bare skin, and her teasing hand is already undoing her bra clasp. She’s a fucking tease, as always, but there Nadine finds her hurried to get on with the climax against the ex-mercenary’s muffled moans.

“Frazer - we’re doomed if we - _shit_ . Okay, Fra - Chloe. _Chloe-_ ”

Suddenly there’s one hand down her pants, another fumbling under her shirt, and Nadine gasps and spasms as the rough fingertips toy with her.

“Shh...” Chloe drawls. Nadine rises with indignation.

“You’re the one that’s been making the most noise since we’ve-”

The kiss takes her by surprise, along with the door of their enclosed closet opening. Light pours down the two women and Chloe instantly pulls her hands off Nadine’s pants in surrender.

Nadine blinks like a doe caught in the headlights, mind still fuzzy with the drug of arousal.

“He-llo!” Chloe says loudly, cheeks flaring pink. “How’s the family, eh?”

The guard keeps staring down at them in shock, pistol lowered. “Qu’est-ce qu-”

Nadine’s massive weight (it’s all muscle) throws itself at the guard, head hitting the floor so hard it knocks him out in the second. She straightens with puffy breaths, the flame of frustration drowning her lower-section.

“Let’s go before anyone notices.”

Chloe pants something out that’s half-way between a profanity and a prayer. She crosses the distance in a stride and skyrockets at Nadine, and it’s a brutal, and it’s a torrid kiss, all tongue and teeth and heat until she gives herself a second to choke out:

“ _Holy mother of shit_ , Nadine, _please_ , will you-”

“Frazer, they’re coming.”

She hates to cut her partner short like that, but it’s a matter of life and death and she’d rather never know the question that concluding their life in a Guadeloupe jail.

They catch their breath when they’re out of town, swaying and gasping for breath against a _Kachiman kochon_ tree in a hilly countryside. Nadine’s legs give out and she slides down the grass; Chloe joins her in a heartbeat.

“I missed that high.” the thief breathes out, looking up the sun setting in the west. “Y’know, the… chasing. Though we didn’t get shot at for once. I’m a bit disappointed.”

Nadine settles to listening to Chloe. At the same time, she tries putting a name on what they are, on how she feels. It’s stupid, maybe, but it is her first time in a lasting, serious relationship with one she can see herself growing old and bold with. It’s all new to her.

Plenitude. Or, peace. Fulfillment.

“Frazer.” she calls out, slowly. “I was wondering what you wanted to ask me earlier.”

Chloe turns to her blankly, then her expression breaks into a smile. “Ah, that. Oh, I don’t know. It was in the spurt of the moment.”

“What was it?”

“Nah, it’s plain stupid on my part to think like that.”

“Okay, as you wish. But you should know that you might never know the answer if you don’t ask.”

She sees the hesitation, shown by a face turned to the wild instead of her. Then a shrug, as though it all truly doesn’t matter as much as it does.

“I’ll leave it for later.”

“Want me to do it?”

Chloe squints at Nadine, opening her mouth in surprise and letting it gap. It’s comical. There’s a knot tightening itself around her guts, squeezing and leaving her needy for life. She takes in a breath and rises to her feet clumsily to stand high in front of Chloe; she looks up to her, eyes wide and fearful, with a little incredulous shake of the head.

“Nadine…”

“Chloe.” Nadine says, voice watery.

And she sets a knee down.

“Holy _fuck_ , Nadine-”

“Do you-”

“Do I want to be your wife, yes I do, now come here, you stubborn dickhead.”

The insult was made to hide the tears and the kiss just as well. She tugs Nadine down with her.

They don’t move for a very long time. When they do, they stand by joint agreement, muddy and euphoric. They support each other as they stumble back to the Drake cabin, clutching their sides and their hands intertwined, and then it comes to Nadine, all at once, like a blow to the stomach, that she knows what they are and what she is, and that it’s nothing complicated, it’s actually the easiest word. It’s the one you whisper in her ear when you brush back her hair in the morning, nibbling at her neck; it’s the one you roll your eyes at sitting at a booth when she offers you her straw for your shared smoothie; it’s the one hissing out of your hoarse throat when your hips buckle into hers, somewhere around one twenty-seven in the morning, on a boat, above which the moon shines high.

“I’m yours.” Nadine lets out. Her voice breaks.

“You’re mine.” she replies. It couldn’t be more simple.

It should feel wrong, knowing someone overpowers her. Knowing someone can take control on her life and turn it inside-out until her past is nothing but shreds - but Chloe did that already, just as much as Nadine stormed into her life and changed it for the better. And it doesn’t feel wrong, being good, and accepting, and loving.

And loving.

 

“I have to tell my dad.” Nadine says one morning, long after they’ve gotten the jewel to the English Ministry of Culture.

Chloe’s okay with it. She’s always up for an adventure, and she seems to particularly enjoy hot weathers. She’s never been to South Africa either.

She holds onto Chloe’s hand like it’s a lifeline when they step slowly through the graves together, but there’s no ache this time.

She rises her chin up when she kneels, setting new flowers against the dead ones.

“Haai, pa.” Chloe settles her own bouquet at their feet. Nadine thanks her with a nod. “Haven’t seen you in fifteen… twenty years. Haven’t counted. It’s just been a while, is all!” She chuckles a little, looking down their joint hands. “Ja, time flew by. I lost Shoreline eight years ago. I‘ve been married for two years too, never thought that’d happen. It’s Chloe. Don’t know if you would have ever agreed, don’t think I would’ve cared either way. But she’s my partner. And I love her.”

“Sorry about the grandkids.” Chloe does. It tears a chuckle from Nadine’s throat. Their rings clink when she fondles this finger.

“Yeah, sorry about that. But my point is, I’ve stopped. I’ve stopped trying to reach the expectations you, and my men, and the men had for me, I’ve stopped trying to be what they wanted me to be. Chloe helped. It was a long ride for us to understand each other, but we did, and I’m thankful. And I thank you. Because even though you taught me wrong you thought it was right just as I once did. We’re all flawed. I know I am. I know Chloe is.”

“Why, thank you.”

“Like she interrupts me on my father’s tombstone, that’s very inconsiderate.”

“Oooh, snap.”

“You wouldn’t get along with her. She’s horribly selfish and arrogant and she’s a true control freak filled with daddy issues. But she’s got a great arse. I guess that compensates!”

Chloe smacks her arm. “Cocky.”

“We win great money, we made new allies along the way. There’s a jailbird that will soon have terminal lung cancer, and his brother Nathan. I remember him yapping at my shoe for some bullshit optimistic illusion of a treasure. He’s settled now, with a wife and a kid.” Nadine clears her throat. “I guess I saw in that two bit thief’s accomplishments what I myself could do. Can’t believe I’m saying this but, seeing him with a family when he used to be a nobody, that gave me inspiration.

“So yeah, it all comes back to you, the first man of my life, the man that paved the way for others. That showed me that they are much less and way more than what I thought they were. Dankie, pa. Thank you, Chloe.”

She stands there, immobile, for five seconds, before Chloe takes her in her arms. She hides her face in her shoulder, tears wetting the crop top.

“I’m so proud of you, love. So proud.”

“Thank you-” And that’s all that Nadine can say, that’s what her thirty-eight years of life have been building up to: that ring on her finger, those flowers on that grave and this relief in her chest, bound with love and acceptance of love. "Thank you so much Chloe."


End file.
